Dato’ Dr Mohd Sofi Osman was born in Penang. Received his primary and secondary educations in Penang before pursuing his engineering degree at University of Strathclyde, Glasgow. He is married with three childrens.

Dato’ Dr Mohd Sofi Osman joined Intel in 2015 with the acquisition of Altera Corporation, where he was the Managing Director and led Worldwide Operations and Engineering for the Asia Pacific region since 2012. Before joining Altera, he had a 25-year career at Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), culminating in his role as Managing Director of AMD Penang. He holds a patent in the field of semiconductor manufacturing process and has published papers on continuous improvement projects in backend semiconductor manufacturing. He retired from Intel in July 2016 after spending almost 30 years in the Semiconductor Industry. In Oct 2018, he came out from retirement to work for Lumileds. He is currently the Managing Director and VP of Lumileds Malaysia.

Dato’ Dr Mohd Sofi Osman was with the Board of Directors at University Malaysia Perlis (UniMAP) since the organization was still known as KUKUM. Currently, he is the Chairman of the board for UTHM. He is also the Adjunct Professor at University Technology Mara (UiTM)Shah Alam and also a member of CEO Faculty Program.

He is currently the Chairman of MIMOS Semiconductor Sdn Bhd and continue to serve as member with the Penang SME Council, Advisor to CREST and a member to the Penang STEM Advisory Panel.

He was a past Chairman for Penang Skills Development Centre (PSDC) where he held the post for three terms. He was also the past President of the Free Industrial Zone Penang Company Association (Frepenca).

Sazani Bin Shafie, obtained a Postgraduate Degree (Hons) in Accounting from University Utara Malaysia (UUM) in 1996 and has started his career in KPMG in 1997. In a carrier spanning over 3 years, Sazani has worked as auditors and management service staff, exposed to various compliance and stationary auditing role with local company, SME and MNC.

In 1999 he joined Hewlett Packard’s as Financial Analyst for Wireless Semiconductor Division, responsible for various business finance strategy including new products introductions, inventory analysis, zero base modeling, gross margin analysis and capital investment decision making.

In 2003, he moved carrier leader to become a Manager under Strategic Contract Manufacturing in Agilent. Under this functions, he built strong foundations on manufacturing process, yield management, cost reductions, manufacturing automations and various operational and strategic negotiation.

After 7 years in Agilent, he joint Avago Technologies as Senior Manager, managing Supply Chain Functions with responsibility in order fulfillment and products planning, Contract Manufacture Management, Supplier KPI and Relationship Management. He is a strong driver, result oriented and obsessed in meeting Division strategic goal and design win initiatives. From 2008, he was promoted to Director of Broadcom Global Distribution hub in Batu Kawan, managing significant Finished Goods movement from all over world and involved in designing cost effective operations, automations, engaged in predictive analysis (Industry 4.0)

A Bachelor Degree holder in Electronic Engineering, majored in Industrial Automations – Micro Electronics from Hanyang University, Seoul Korea, A Master Degree Holder in Information Technologies, majored in: Mobile and Internet security (financial institutions) from University Sains Malaysia and currently pursuing PHD in Manufacturing Engineering, Muhamed had since clocked 22 years of broad working experience in various disciplines, which covers Fundamental Electronic engineering (EE), Mechanical Engineering, Telecommunication, ICT and Corporate strategy.

He is currently the CEO of PSDC (Penang Skills Development Centre) which involves in addressing Skill Mismatch in Graduates and Workforce Transformation not only in Penang but also covers nationwide. PSDC trains more than 8000 trainees a year. Muhamed had also successfully established PSDC as a Centre of Excellent in Industry 4.0 in the area of Precision Machining & Manufacturing processes. Focusing not only on new state of the art equipment’s and processes, but also upgrading the older machineries and equipment with a low investment to migrate to Industry 4.0. PSDC also has been appointed by Malaysian Government agencies, to upskill more the 1800 people nationwide to Industry 4.0 knowledge. Muhamed has delivered more than 80 public speeches in conference not only in Malaysia but in Singapore, in World Congers of IT in Taiwan, Industry 4.0 conferences in Yangon, Myanmar and in Science and technology conference in Kerala India.

The company has been around for the last 25 years and its creation was initially the brainchild of our current Prime Minister. He was aiming for the country to be self-sufficient in this field. Therefore, the government put up a tender to privatize the vaccines developed by the Veterinary Research Institute. MVP started with two shareholders: the founder who won the tender and Arthur Webster Australia, now known as Bayer Animal Health. After a few years, Khazanah Nasional Bhd, the government sovereign fund, through its unit Malaysian Technology Development Corp (MTDC) bought over the founder’s 70 percent shares. In 2006, it made an offer to dispose of about 55 percent of MVP. Puan Rashidah was then a stockbroker looking for a professional reconversion, so she joined the bid and won.
It was a very big shift and when Puan Rashidah took over, the first step she took was to engage someone to do all the troubleshooting for the company. It was a major challenge for the employees to go from public to private. For example, previous marketing strategies were passive and without much external communication but are now more aggressive and competitive. Puan Rashidah also introduced KPIs and conducted annual assessments.
After ten years of helming the company, MVP is now ready to be one of the major players in the world for animal health. As Malaysians are beginning to reduce their consumptions on seafood and migrating towards poultry as a cheaper and the easiest source of protein, MVP must be ready to move in line with this trend to cater with the growing demand. Also, as the nation is moving towards Industry 4.0, which include IOT, robotics and blockchains, MVP wants their employees to be prepared and equipped with the knowledge.
MVP was recently awarded ISO 9001:2015 certification within the Quality Management System (QMS) and is now applying for the UKAS (United Kingdom Accreditation Services). Next is getting the EU-GMP certified, once MVP gets this in place, it plans to penetrate Europe!